Rally Sweden winner Kristensson delivered a decisive stage time on stage one, opening a convincing 20-second lead on Pajari with the then third-placed Sesks 40 seconds behind following a spin.
Sesks responded with a stage win on SS2, taking over 10 seconds out of Kristensson’s advantage while leap frogging Pajari to move into second as Britain’s Ruairi Bell matched his best stage result to date with third. Bell’s pace was impressive, with his confidence building stage to stage until he sent his Fiesta Rally4 hurtling into a bale at some speed on the second pass of Erula-Tula at the end of the first loop.
Stage four saw a dramatic change in the top-three too with championship leader Sesks retiring after breaking a driveshaft. In total the stage claimed three drivers including Sesks and Bell as Enrico Oldrati’s day finished after damaging his steering. The chaos of stage four saw Zaldivar emerge in third with two stages remaining on Friday.
Sesks’ blunder offered Kristensson the perfect opportunity to close the points gap as the championship tightens, seizing a stage win on the fifth stage. Pajari responded on the final stage of the day to claim his second stage win of the rally while chipping his Swedish rival’s lead down to 50 seconds. Zaldivar’s pace continued to improve on the final pair of stages, crossing the finish on stage six without any issues to end the day third with a sizeable advantage over Sesks.
Fabio Andolfi chose not to start the rally due to health reasons and Marco Pollara retired for the day on the opening stage.
Sesks, Bell, Oldrati and Pollara will restart the rally on Saturday with all four drivers still able to score classification points as well as the highly sought-after state win points.
Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Team Director, said: « This has been a very testing opening day for a lot of our crews as Rally Sardinia is proving itself once again to be a rough and difficult rally. Tom delivered an incredible performance on the opening stage this morning and it has to be said he has bounced back from Estonia and handling the pressure really well. There is still quite a long way to go before we can start any congratulations though and I am sure Martins will provide some very interesting stage times tomorrow as he hunts down the stage wins. It’s great to see Fabrizio Zaldivar in the top-three, he came very close to scoring a podium on Rally GB last year so let’s see how he can handle the next couple of days. »
Tom Kristensson, FIA Junior WRC rally leader: « I couldn’t dream of this kind of start to a rally before. I didn’t think it would be possible, firstly I actually planned to find the feeling, if I find the feeling I pushed and if not I backed off. It changed a lot with the different stages, surfaces and roads so it has been tricky that way but also really good. There’s still a long way to go but let’s see what happens. »
Press release FIA junior WRC
]]>
